Jordan Admits He Was Racist As A Teen

Basketball superstar Michael Jordan admitted that when he was younger he considered himself a racist and was “against all white people.” The revelation comes from a new book titled, “Michael Jordan: The Life,” by Ronald Lazenby.

Jordan told the author how the KKK was a dominate presence while he was growing up in North Carolina, where he was raised in the mid-1970s, often buying uniforms for athletic teams and bibles for schools. Jordan says it was after watching the miniseries “Roots,” about the suffering of his African-American ancestors, that he began to understand more about race relations.

One incident that stands out in his mind is when a girl he went to school with called him the N-word in 1977. “So I threw a soda at her,” he says. “I was really rebelling. I considered myself a racist at the time. Basically, I was against all white people.” His mom finally sat him down and told him that he would be unwise to go through life hating another race of people.